You have got to hand it to this guy. Whilst working and fighting in Iraq fly fishing would not be in the forefront of most peoples minds, but hey… he packed a fly rod and it just so happened Saddam Hussein’s former palaces have lakes packed with fish so what are you going to do?

So I decided to do a spot of loch fishing as The Kelvin and its tributaries are completely out of action. I took a walk (a hike?) up into the Old Kilpatrick hills where there is a loch not owned by any club but has some small trout in it.
There was a small burn coming out of the loch that looked quite tasty actually but I decided to head up to the loch as that was my primary purpose. I was using my 10 foot rod with an intermediate 7 weight line
I had a few casts from the dam wall and got some interest from a couple of fish, I would swear one of them was a rather large Perch, both fish swirled at my fly but did not take it. The loch is quite small and knowing that there was a small inlet with a burn around the other side of the loch I headed over.
At this time of year I would expect there to be fish there as they will be thinking about spawning. I had to jump over the burn which was in spate and was rewarded with two small trout that fought hard!

Lovely looking trout, nice color but I thought they looked a bit thin?
I also gave myself the willies as when I was walking through some bushes suddenly the bushes in front of started to shakeâ€¦.I heard a low â€œGrrrrrrrrâ€ and I hurriedly moved awayâ€¦.I then spent the next hour constantly looking over my shoulder for some kind of monster that would tear my head off and quite possibly eat me!!

Just goes to show that you can in fact get too much of a good thing. The river is like hot chocolate (although cold) and looks to stay like that untill the brown trout season ends. If we have two days respite one of the tributories may be fishable….we shall see!!!

A couple of weeks left trout fishing, the weather has grown cold and I will be starting a new job shortly as well. I would like to say that I will be fishing every day until the season closes but I doubt it as wedding plans are being made (and seemingly I have to do a lot more). This week I want to get down to the Kelvin at least a couple of times and to one of the tributaries at least once. At this time of year you should be expecting trout moving up river into the tributaries so sport should be pretty good.

I am also thinking of having a bash at catching a Salmon on the fly (if any are actually surviving) at the tail end of the season, I would be grateful of anyone out there that fishes for Salmon on the Kelvin (without a net and a pair of flippers) to tell me how productive they are.

More than 300,000 diseased salmon from Marine Harvest Limited fish farms in the Western Isles have been buried in the machair (gobally important shell-sand dunes and fields) at Kyles-paible near Bayhead on the Island of North Uist. Marine Harvest continues to use the site to dispose of their sick and dying fish.Continue reading The Salmon Farm Protest Group

So last week one of the Kelvin fishers (Alex) asked me if I wanted to go and do a bit of Stockie bashing. Seeing as how it must be done a couple of times a season? (At least that is what I have decided on now) I agreed and the day was set for yesterday which was Monday. I had checked the weather in advance and it was for gales and rain. Alex was far more optimistic than me â€“ Ach itâ€™ll be fine a bit of wind will be good for the fish.
So I got my stuff together and got the train into Glasgow Central with all the commuters received some funny looks as I was wearing my chest waders! Alex was sporting a rather large black eye which meant I did not recognise him at the station for around 10 minutes and then we were on our way…

Harelaw is a large, shallow reservoir, extending to 102 acres, including four and a half miles of mature, good wading banks, 4 dam walls and three islands. An averaging depth of 5-9 feet, ensures that fish can be found virtually anywhere on the fishery. Harelaw’s moorland setting is also home to a variety of birds and wildlife.

Needless to say it sounds great, it would have been great to if it hadnâ€™t been blowing a gale and pissing down with rain. Or rather it was a great day out, it was the actual fishing that was bad, we did everything right (like casting and retrieving with pink zonkers) but the fish were dour and unresponsive. Alex managed one at 2lb a nice fully finned rainbow, oh and a nice brownie while I got 2 perch.

Big waves, pouring rain, the sound of a blob hitting you full force in the backâ€¦.priceless.
Thatâ€™s what good memories are made of we kept telling each other. Another memory was when I took charge of the engine and ran as aground causing the engine to bugger up. We then had to row back up the loch to get a new one.
The day was good for stories and laughs (if we didnt laugh we would have cried)!! which just goes to show you that even on absolutely miserable days you can still have some enjoyment! You dont need fish to enjoy a days fishing (but it helps)